, 1887-04-19
STUDENTS ''STIFFS,"
HOW OiSSECTlNG MATERIAL i3
UTILIZED IN A MEDICAL COLLEGE.


When Janitor Hicks and Assistant Mike
Ind rolled all the barrels into the inject
ing room they took down half a dozen of
the shelves and placed them on the floor.
After removing a cadaver from a barrel
they laid 1t out on the shelf, and then
raised the shelf TO a table, where they left
1t and turned to the next subject. Before
all the barrels were emptied they found
that there was not room IN the tables for
all of them, and Hicks accordingly pro-
ceeded to embalm those already laid out.
He performed this task precisely as he had
hundreds of times before. He took down
a gigantic piston syringe and filled it with
a solution of plaster of paris. This done,
he laid the syringe aside for a moment
While he made an incision with a surgeons
knife into the carotid artery of the cadaver.
To get still further from technical terms
he cut a cash in the artery that run up
the neck where one may feel a strong
pulse beat. There are two of these arte-
ries, and Hicks, following his ancient in
structions, cut the left carotid. Some blood
flowed, but not much Next he inserted
the end of the syringe in the cash and
into the severed artery. Then followed a
hard push on the piston, which sent the
embalming fluid all through the body, it
was evident very quickly, for the solution
is pink, and in a moment the arteries in
all parts of the body could he traced by a
pink line.
1t is wonderful bow thorough this work
is; generally one injection of the olution
serves the purpose, and ut the most two
are sufficient. Sufficient for WHAT To
keep the body in a state of preservation
for the month or more that elapses before
the students get through with it. The
embalming properly done, Hicks and Mike
lifted the shelf with the cadaver on 1t to n
place against the wall. There it was left
entirely nude and unmarked except by its
own blood from the accidental and intend
ed decorations it had undergone. Appar-
emily IL did not occur to Hicks or Mike to
wonder what name it had borne in life.
They are no respectors of identity. But
they represent their employers and do
their work in n methodical, businesslike
way, and the room they work in knows
nothing of sex; it is not recognized in in
animate flesh. The cadaver which stopped
breathing no more perhaps than thirty
hours ago, and which was called n woman
until the heart ceased to beat, comes to
the injecting room simply as u structure.
of flesh, bones, nerves, tissues, limbs and
organs; it is pulled by main strength
FROM its barrel, gashed ut the carotid ar
terry, injected with n solution of plaster of
paris, laid on its shelf to wait its turn,
ullCONtTtu ulNl ullGOllSlNGItu uulcSS SOlllb
idle thought is bestowed upon it, as If the
emhallnet were to wonder what studenJ
would be lucky enough TO get the head.
IN II ~DIssECTING ROOM.
When Hicks and Mike had emptied all
the barrels and embalmed all the cadavers
they set about the next step in the pro-
gress of the subject for dissection. This
was to transport the cadavers to the dis
secting room up stairs. TO do this they
required tn. assistance of n student who
was at work in the building. A rope was
cast about the upper part of a dead body
and tied under the arms. One man took
hold of the end of the rope and the other
of the legs and trunk, and in this way,
with n good deal of jolting against the
walls and stumbling on the stairs, they
got their burden into the dissecting room.
1t takes about three weeks for a body to
go through the dissecting room. AS the
tables are kept pretty well supplied,
it generally happens that n cadaver has to
wait n few days in the injecting room for
a vacancy. When this occurs the profess
sOr of anatomy posts a notice in the col
lego to this effect: Material for dissec-
ton will be furnished to the following
gentlemen on - day
Then follows n list of students whose
turn IS to avail themselves of the invalua-
BILE privileges offered by the institution in
its dissccting room. From the list of stu
dents anybody can tell how many fresh
adavers have been brought in, for the
humble of men on the list will always be
n multiple of five, and dividing this mum
Der by five will give the number of cadav-
ers. When the students report for mate.
rial each one pays the clerk Of the college
81. This is not obligatory, and n man is
not compelled either to accept dissecting
material when his name is posted or pay
his fee. Most Of the students, however,
are eager to avail themscl res of the op-
portunities. The fee of 81 entities the
student to one part of the cadaver, which
is divided into five parasitic head, the
right arm, the left arm, the right leg and
the left leg. Discrimination as to the dis
tribution of the respective parts is made
according to priority of application.
REMOVING DEBRIS.
Five students then work together on a
cadaver. They may do all the work at
the appointed table in the dissecting room,
or, as many do, they MAY take their part
home and cut it up there. Cases have oc-
Cured, though in violation of a rule,
where n student, desiring to take advan
tage of n brief vacation and yet unwilling
to lose time altogether in his study, has
packed an arm or n head into a travelling
bag and carried il with him into another
state, and cut It up there in the intervals
of family Fluctuations and reunions. If
they do their dissecting outside of the col
lege building they max such disposition
of the refuse rs seems to them fit; most
of them burn it. The refuse is, of course,
the tegument, muscles, arteries, etc,
which are removed from the part under
study. In case the work is done at the
college all this is provided for; each stu
lent has n pan, or slop jar, into which he
throws the tegument as soon rs it has
been removed, aDd the various muscles,
membranes and the rest follow it from
day TO day as the task OF stripping the
bones progresses.
Now and then Mike makes the rounds
from tabl to teable with a larger slop jar
collecting the refuse. In this way lie gets
n jar full of pieces of the thirty different
cadavers and empties them into a barrel.
When the barrel has stood several days,
growing constantly fuller of human
refuse, it gives forth n strong odor of de
cay, but the students do not mind it par
ticularly, and Mike usually waits n good
convenient time for taking care of it.
What does he do with itg 1t is an inter
esting question. The law provides that
after the reputable medical institutions are
through with the bodies of the unknown